YouTube Serving 2 Billion Daily Views Through 5 Years

YouTube may not yet be the cash cow Google envisioned it
would be when it
purchased the company for $1.65 billion in 2006, but it is certainly not
lacking for growth.

Leading video-sharing Website YouTube turned five years old this
month and is now seeing two billion view per day, the YouTube team said
May 16. For perspective, that download number is almost double the prime-time
audience of ABC, CBS and NBC combined.

Other key stats include: the average user is spending 15
minutes per day on the Website; 24 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every
minute; and 45 million daily homepage impressions.

To celebrate, the Website launched the
YouTube Five Year channel, YouTube encourages users to upload videos discussing how YouTube has
affected or changed their lives.

"What started as a site for bedroom vloggers and
viral videos has evolved into a global platform that supports HD and 3D,
broadcasts entire sports seasons live to 200+ countries," YouTube said.

It's also a major investment for Google as it seeks to
become a major player in rich media and display advertising, areas where Google is weak compared to its massive keyword search ad share.

Google CFO Patrick Pichette said on the third quarter 2009 conference call in-video ads were pushing the
Website close to profitability, but Google has yet to crest that ocean.

What's on tap for the next five years? Better everything,
including improved HD, search, annotations and closed captions. Perhaps most
significantly, YouTube also wants to turn people into a new kind of couch potato:

"Although the average user spends 15 minutes a day
on YouTube, that's tiny compared to the five hours a day people spend watching
TV. Clearly, we need to give you more reason to watch more videos!"

Google TV is one way YouTube could grab some of that audience. Google TV supposedly includes an Android set-top box powered by Intel chips that will allow users to
run Web applications on televisions.

Google likely envisions YouTube will see a big boost in
use once the company can bring the service to users on big-screen TVs. Google
would then pair the programming with advertisements, expanding its video ad
footprint.